What it Really Takes To Start And Run An Online Business From Home?
What does it take to run an online business from home is a question I feel qualified to answer. That’s because: A. I’m doing it and B. I’m part of a worldwide online business community and as such know a lot of other people who are too. More on that later but for now I’ll share what I’ve learned over the last 5 years.
Actually I’ll skip the first 3 years, which I consider a learning curve – it’s not one you want to follow. I’ll hopefully save you some time and money by just saying this: Don’t bother with the programmes, HYIP opportunities, franchised e-commerce stores and so called passive income online “businesses”. You might make a few quid, might just break even but most likely you will lose.
Most of those are based around some clever scheme or brand new concept that somehow games the system but there is absolutely no need to re-invent the wheel here. There are more than enough proven products and services already in existence and plenty of people looking for them online. If you want to run an online business from home – from anywhere in fact – bear that in mind first of all.
The Key Things To Consider
Moving on then (I hope you can guess that I did all of the above) Setting up and running an online business from home takes money and time. Not anything like as much of either as a traditional business does but definitely some of both. The mix is up to you and depends on how fast you want to see results. An online business runs on traffic and you can get it either by using free methods or paid. The first is slower but both have learning curves.
Set Up.
That’s the easy part. The beauty of an online business – especially if you start with affiliate marketing (highly recommended) is that you really just need a computer and a broadband connection. Ideally you want some space around you – a home office or spare room – as you do want to start off with the clear understanding that it IS a business.
You might also find yourself doing video marketing webcasting, skype calls and webinars as your business grows. For those it’s definitely an advantage to have a dedicated work space at times although you can work from pretty much anywhere.
What to Sell.
Every business needs to sell something. On the internet it’s not a face to face sale but you still need products. As I mentioned affiliate marketing – where you sell other peoples products is by far the best starting point. I’ll provide a link to a video explaining affiliate marketing in detail at the end of this post. In short though you can find affiliate products to sell in pretty much any niche you can think of.
Traffic.
Traffic is the lifeblood of any internet based business. It’s out there already. Millions upon millions of people are online 24 hrs a day searching the internet for information, products and services. Your job is to position yours in front of them.
There are a great many ways you can do this both free and paid. Where an online business has a huge advantage is that marketing and advertising can be supremely targeted. In short you can find out exactly who is interested in your products and market only to them. You can also measure, analyse, tweak and scale your results to the nth degree. That’s simply not possible with offline advertising, which is a much more costly, hit or miss proposition.
Automation
Another wonderful thing about running an online business is that large parts of it can be automated. That’s what gives you the time freedom. Every piece of content you put out on the internet can contain links that lead to automatic sales. Whether that’s a free blog post or video or a paid advert or social media post the process is the same:
- Someone clicks on the link
- That takes them to a landing page, which provides an option to buy or to receive more information.
- The Landing page asks for an email address in exchange for a free gift (ebook, video or webinar for example – something that ads value)
- That email is automatically added to a list building programme, which can then send further automatic or impromptu messages. This helps to build trust and leads to future sales.
When you have set this up you have a system that “takes care of business” for you. You just have to make sure that it is consistently fed with fresh traffic. Get good at doing that and you really do have a largely hands off, highly profitable business.
Can Anyone Do It?
Again based on my experience and the people I know who are doing it the answer is a firm yes. People from all walks of life, of all ages and levels of technical experience are running online businesses. The technology is now very user friendly.
Can I Do It Alone?
Possibly but if you read my intro you’ll remember that I spent 3 years struggling to learn all this before I finally started to see some great results. That point came when I was introduced to the same people I’m about to introduce you to.
If you go it alone you’ll find yourself as I did going down countless rabbit holes. You’ll find a kazillion places to build websites, landing pages, autoresponders and all the other nuts and bolts of online marketing. You’ll find training courses, tools and resources on every aspect of the business. You’ll find a trillion places to find traffic, and a bewildering array of products to sell.
Much better, I would suggest, to get everything in the one place. That’s what I did and I’ve never looked back. That was The Six Figure Mentors and Their partner company Digital Experts Academy. By far the best place I’ve seen in 5 years online to get training, mentorship and highly profitable, high demand products to sell.
Meet them via a free 7 – day video series by clicking on the image below.
By Dave Menzies